


Desperate Measures

by rinthegreat



Series: Stories from the Front Lines [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - War, M/M, MakoRin Week 2015, Pre-Slash, Soldiers, keepin the marianas trench theme going
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 02:31:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5479937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Makoto measured his blood pressure these days, he was sure it would be at least twenty points higher than normal.</p>
<p>MakoRin Week 2015 Day 4: Fears</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desperate Measures

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this is late. At least I made it before the week ended!

            Makoto didn’t like to think he had a weak heart.  He’d followed his best friend into the military after all.  At first he was a little squeamish around the blood, but once the captain had seen how good he was with people, he’d been trained to be a medic.  After that, he couldn’t afford to be concerned about blood or bones or death.

            Except, apparently, when it came to Rin.

            They met Rin in training.  He and Haru had hit it off in a way Makoto had never seen anyone get along with Haru before.  They were friends, but rivals as well.  It was good for Haru, and Makoto had instantly taken a liking to the redhead and the friend he’d dragged along.

            The liking had turned into something more, an ache in his chest that Makoto had never felt before.  One he resolutely ignored.  It was bad enough he was attached to his four closest friends in the middle of this war.  Anything more than that would end in nothing but heartbreak.

            Especially if they all made it out alive.

            When they’d been assigned to Mikoshiba’s squad, the captain had immediately taken notice of Haru and Rin.  “You’re fast,” he’d told them.  “I’m planning to use that to our advantage.”

            Makoto almost had a heart attack the first time Mikoshiba had sent the two of them out to scout.  Alone.  Haru had squeezed his arm before he left, wordless reassurance.  Not that it made Makoto feel any better.

            And Rin had just smirked at Makoto.  “I’ll be sure to bring back a souvenir,” he’d promised.  He and Haru had already formed a competition of some sort.  Apparently.

            “Just focus on coming back,” he’d begged, a little pathetically.  Next to him, Sousuke just clenched his fists.

            After that, it became part of their squad’s normal tactics.  If an enemy’s location was known, Rin and Haru were sent to determine population, weapons, civilians, and so on.  Soon enough, Mikoshiba had them off some guards.  Then plant charges.

            If Makoto measured his blood pressure these days, he was sure it would be at least twenty points higher than normal.

            When they were only sent as scouts, it went mostly well.  They were instructed to stay outside the base.  Get whatever they could by just looking.  Sometimes they were spotted, and they’d come sprinting back, Rin shouting “incoming!”

            But once they started entering the camps instead of just scouting them out, everything went sideways.  About half the time Rin and Haru were sent out, they’d be spotted by someone and have to take cover until the squad could move in.

            This time, it was taking Sousuke’s team longer than normal to provide cover.  Makoto had emerged from his foxhole and was watching from behind the back lines as they prepped their weapons.  This base they’d come across had seemed normal, but something had gone wrong.  The enemy had heavy artillery.  The place was well secured, and Sousuke’s team couldn’t get close without risk of mortars.

            Leaving Rin and Haru sitting ducks protected by nothing but a flimsy barricade left by the last squad who attempted to take the base.

            Makoto squeezed his rifle, knuckles whitening.  “At ease, soldier,” Mikoshiba said from beside him.  “We need you as a medic, not on the front line.”

            That didn’t make it any better.

            He could just barely make out the two of them.  Rin’s hair standing out starkly against the background.  It shifted every now and then, a reminder that he was still alive.  He thanked every deity out there that they made his hair so bright.

            The whole squad was out of reach, and he could see Sousuke up ahead, shifting his weight, and looking as nervous as Makoto felt.  Useless.  Both of them.  What was the point of all that training if they couldn’t save anyone?

            What happened next just made it worse.  Heavy artillery was putting it lightly when Captain Mikoshiba had predicted the source of the mortors.  Tanks appeared, crawling out of the entrance of the enemy stronghold, making mincemeat out of everything they plowed over.

            Makoto’s heart stopped.

            “Yamazaki, get your team out there!”  Mikoshiba shouted, moving from where he was next to him.  The waiting game wasn’t working.  “I need machine guns focusing on the battlements!  Uozumi, get the god damn bazooka out there and get rid of those god damn tanks for me!”

            The squad moved quickly, Sousuke’s team finally breaking out into the open while the machine gunners provided cover.  This was the part of war Makoto hated most.  He threw his rifle over his shoulder and pulled his med kit around his waist for easier access.  It was only a matter of time before he’d be called for.

            But then he froze.

            There, too far for Sousuke’s team to reach and too close to the approaching tanks, Rin was ducking out of the cover.  Making a run for it.  Drawing the enemy’s attention.

            Like a deer in the headlights, Makoto couldn’t move.  He could just stand there and watch the whole scene unfold in front of him, completely paralyzed.

            A blur in the corner of his vision caught his attention, and Makoto blinked in time to see Sousuke sprinting for Rin, the team behind him covering with machine gun fire.  Somewhere down the line, Ryuugazaki fired off shot after shot, sniping down the men who were stupid enough to poke their head outside of the tank and shoot at Rin and Sousuke.

            His mind focused in on Rin’s hair, the red becoming a single point narrowing out all the rest.  The sounds of battle disappeared at the next shot from the tank.  The others had been missing, shaking the ground with dirt, but ultimately not doing any damage.  This one was too close.

            Rin went down like a sack of potatoes, dirt flying into the air and blocking him from view.  Sousuke’s feet flew, him and Haru – how had Makoto forgotten about him? – arriving at Rin at the same time.  They hoisted him up between them, and even from this distance Makoto could tell that his body was made more of red than anything else.

            He was running before he knew what was happening.

            The four of them met in the field, behind the bazookas and machine gunners, now successfully pushing the enemy back.  Tanks or no tanks.

            Haru and Sousuke gently lowered Rin to the ground in front of Makoto, and the medic tried to ignore the sounds of gunfire around him.  He checked for a pulse first, fingers shaking.  It took him three fumbling tries and Sousuke’s gentle hand on his own to find it.  Weak, but there.

            He ripped open what remained of Rin’s shirt, assessing the damage.  He’d been hit by ricochets.  Several of them.  He saw a few in Rin’s legs, bleeding through his pants, and possibly a third location at his hairline.  That or the soldier had landed on a sharp rock when he fell.

            The bleeding was the big issue, Makoto decided after his initial assessment.  He cut off the circulation in Rin’s left leg right at the top, tying it with steady hands now that he knew the redhead was alive.  He threw patches on the ones on Rin’s chest and wrapped his head.  That should contain most of the damage.  Keep Rin alive until the battle ended and Makoto could get in there and remove the metal.  “Take him to the back,” Makoto instructed, voice calmer than he felt.

            There were calls for a medic coming from all along the front line, and now that Rin was alive and safe for the next few minutes, he had a job to do.  He didn’t wait to see if they would do as he asked; Makoto knew Haru and Sousuke both loved Rin too.  They wouldn’t risk wasting time.

            The battle waged on for another hour or so, enemy falling back as their squad pushed forward.  Makoto made his way from man to man, fixing what he could and comforting those he couldn’t.  No rest for the weary.

            When the victory shot was finally fired, men lighting up their customary cigarettes, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.  Everyone but Makoto.  The fear returned, no longer held back by duty and orders, gripping his heart and filling his veins with ice.

            His hands were shaking again by the time he made it to where they’d already set up a medic tent for him, the wounded lying around it.  Most he had taken care of during the battle, them having been further back from the firefight by the time Makoto got to them than Rin had.

            In other words, there was nothing to distract him from the redhead.

            Rin was still unconscious when Makoto entered, but he injected the soldier with pain killers regardless.  Waking up to tweezers dug three inches into your body was unpleasant at the best of times.  His hands were shaking so bad when he went to remove the first set of shrapnel that he stabbed himself instead.  Makoto took a step back and slapped himself until he was able to work without hurting himself or Rin further.

            Removing all the shrapnel from Rin took the same amount of time as the battle itself.  By the time he was done, Makoto was sweaty and covered in Rin’s blood.  He collapsed next to the bed, leaning his head against it.  He should eat something.  Rehydrate himself.  Sleep.  Instead, he just sat there, staring at the red on his fingers.  He’d forgotten to wear gloves.

            Even if he’d wanted to sleep, he couldn’t.  Every time he blinked, he was caught with the vision of Rin being dragged across the field by Sousuke and Haru.  Unconscious and bloodied.  Head lolling with each step.

            Makoto stood up, weary though he was.  He gazed down at Rin, similarly sweaty and bloodied, though sleeping it off in a drug induced slumber.  Makoto took the nearest rag, only half soiled unlike the rest, and wiped off the soldier’s brow.  He ought to have changed Rin’s clothes.  His shirt and pants were stripped to ribbons, held on only by Makoto’s feelings of propriety.  But Rin would get cold.

            Swallowing his guilt, Makoto got to work cleaning the parts which weren’t covered in bandages and changing him.  He moved quickly when he got to Rin’s underwear, changing them without looking.  And when all of that was done, Rin still sleeping, he gave up and slumped to the ground again, unwilling to move away.

            He woke to a sharp intake of breath and a deep groan above his head.  “Shit.” 

            Makoto sat up straighter at the curse.  He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep.

            At least it was dreamless.

            “Rin?”  He whispered back.  Hours had passed, the sun was dipping below the horizon from what he could tell from the light shining through the fabric of the tent.  Outside, he heard the sounds of soldiers preparing dinner, making sleeping arrangements.  Drawing straws to see who was forced to have watches that night.

            Another groan.  “Shit, what happened?”

            Makoto stood up.  In the fading light, he could make out Rin’s expression.  Pain.  He grabbed for the morphine, then stopped himself.  Until their next resupply, he couldn’t afford to use it willy nilly.  Instead, he grabbed the bottle of scotch.  No doubt left there by Sousuke while they were sleeping.

            “Thanks,” Rin grunted as Makoto handed it to him.  He helped the soldier sit up better, supporting his back so Rin could take a drink.  Rin coughed after the first gulp.  “Fuck, I’ll never get used to that.  Do you have water?”

            “Sure.”  Makoto took the scotch and came back with his canteen.  He supported Rin again as the redhead drained it.  He didn’t want to let go.

            They stayed silent like that for a few moments, the rise and fall of voices the only sound as two soldiers walked past the tent.  “Did Haru make it out?”  Rin asked quietly, breaking the silence.  Sometimes it took soldiers some time to come back to themselves after being knocked unconscious.

            “Haru’s fine.  He and Sousuke carried you to the back.”

            Rin breathed out.  A little sigh that Makoto felt against his hand as Rin’s back expanded.  Followed by a wince when his skin stretched his stitches.  “The last thing I remember is the tanks and gunfire.  What –“

            “Tank round,” Makoto interrupted.  He was speaking too fast, already not wanting to talk about it.  “Shattered the ground close enough to you.  Force knocked you over.  Rock knocked you out.  Shrapnel scarred your body.”

            To his surprise, Rin let out a little laugh.  “Wicked.  Think the scars will be enough to show off?”

            Makoto stiffened.  That wasn’t the reaction he wanted.  He grabbed Rin’s forearms, too hard, and adjusted himself so he could look directly at the soldier.  “I don’t find that very funny.”

            “Aw come on, Makoto.  I lived didn’t –“

            “But that doesn’t mean you will next time!”

            Silence.  Makoto was breathing too hard, eyes wild as he stared into Rin’s own.  Finally, Rin seemed to understand that it wasn’t a joke.  Makoto tightened his grip, emphasizing the point.

            Rin winced.  “Ow.”  The medic let go.

            They stayed there in silence as Rin’s breathing returned to normal.  “I’m sorry,” Makoto spoke finally.  “I –“

            “I get it.”  Rin’s voice was softer than before, barely above a whisper.

            He couldn’t bring himself to meet Rin’s eyes.  “Please don’t do that again.”  He knew he had no right to ask that, to demand that Rin keep himself safe in the middle of a war.  But he could request, as a medic, that the soldier not put himself further at risk.

            “Ok,” Rin agreed, bumping his forehead against Makoto’s.  “It won’t happen again.”

            Even without looking, Makoto could tell it was a lie.

           

 


End file.
